Friday Claire and I left the house early. As a special treat I took her with me to J. Beaners for a hot morning drink before taking her to school. She decided on a hot caramel spiced chai -- good choice! When she got home from school that afternoon she had her latest report card. This past term went very well for her. I'm going to work with her a little extra on her math, especially now that she will be getting into subtracting two digit numbers.
Michelle also had a good "report card" from her OB/GYN when she went for her post partum followup exam. The doctor thought she healed nicely from the surgury. That evening I drew her up a bath in our tub -- a simple pleasure that she hasn't been able to have while the caesarian stitches were healing.
As I wrote about earlier, the weather was fantastic on Sunday. After the boys got up from their afternoon naps, we took a stroll down the neighborhood. Claire really wanted to walk around the block past the neighboring farm so we split pathes. Michelle took Abby and Timothy back home. I took the boys (in the stroller) and Claire around so that we could walk past the farm. Being one of the first warm days, you certainly could smell the farm. Claire was excited to see the ducks and roosters and cows. I was mainly concerned about how narrow the shoulder of the road was and the cars and trucks barreling down the road.
Sunday evening we watched a new Disney movie just released on video: Tuck Everlasting. (see also Disney's long downloading (600K) web site for the movie...) Michelle, Claire, and I really enjoyed it. The music and cinematography were very good. This review compared it favorably with the children's book which I had never heard of. Maybe I grew up under rock?
The reviewer's comparison made me want to go out and buy a copy of the original children's book to read to Claire. I picked it up from our local bookstore and read the prologue and first chapter to Claire tonight. My understanding is that the book deals with the primary issue of the story much better than the movie did. A main theme of the book is what would it be like if you could drink a special water that preserved you forever at your current age -- almost a fountain of youth. At first it would seem such a blessing, but to the Tuck family it has become a curse. They are frozen and cannot grow, change, or die. Winnifred 'Winnie' Foster meets and falls in love with the young son in this "immortal" family and must make a fateful choice.
We found out today that not only are Chris and Katie coming out for Timothy's Baptism, but Gina (Michelle's sister and Claire's godmother) will be flying out for the weekend of Claire's First Communion at the end of April. This is great news!
Like yesterday today was also very warm. I drove to the Y to workout at lunchtime and it was the first time in many months that I recall the car being warm inside when I entered it. Before you know it those seats will be scalding hot again. Another sign that spring is around the corner: both Milford's Hayward Ice Cream stand and Nashua's Big One Ice Cream stand have re-opened for the season. Ymmm! Dad, you left the area too early!! It does seem a bit strange to see them open when there's still significant snow on the ground. It's melting fast though. I took my car to get all the salt washed off this morning and by the time I got home again it was dirty from the water on the streets due to the melting snowpack along the curbs.
Wednesday is the feast of St. Joseph, patron saint of (many causes but in particular) fathers. Even though we believe that Jesus was an only child, I still think that Joseph had it far more difficult than I will have. I may try to go to Mass that morning to commemorate him and ask for his intercession in helping me be a good father.
In case you hadn't heard, "President Bush gave Saddam Hussein an ultimatum Monday night -- step down in 48 hours or face war." more... I was a bit relieved to not hear him say the forces are striking just yet. It remains to be seen whether Saddam will leave or not.